None.
This invention relates generally to patient dentition stain removal, and particularly concerns methods, materials, and apparatus which may be advantageously utilized in connection with the whitening or bleaching of patient teeth in a dental office.
Present conventional dental practice in the United States for effectively changing the inherent color of patient""s teeth basically involves: (1) an in-office teeth whitening procedure that generally requires about one-hour of office time, and (2) in-office preparation of a patient kit with instructions, followed by patient use of the kit in teeth whitening treatments at home of from 1 to 8 hours per day repeated for 2 to 6 weeks.
The in-office teeth whitening procedure usually involves, with a protective rubber dam in place in the patient""s mouth: (1) protectively coating the patient""s gingival tissues; (2) applying to and activating on the teeth to be whitened an extremely caustic, light-activated, hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide gel, and: (3) afterwards completing a thorough mouth rinse and removal of the protective coating and rubber dam.
The dentist-prepared kit for patient home-use typically includes a custom-configured patient bleaching tray or mouth-guard formed by a multi-step in-office procedure, a supply of whitening agent such as carbamide peroxide gel, and appropriate instructions for kit home-use by the patient. The typical multi-step dental office procedure utilized for forming the custom patient tooth-whitening mouth-guard or tray for home use is a time-consuming procedure, and typically involves the basic steps of: (1) making conventional alginate impressions of the patient""s maxillary and/or mandibular teeth, (2) casting dentition models using state-of-the-art dental laboratory stone casting material and the alginate impressions followed by trimming-away of un-needed model material, (3) blocking out on the trimmed cast stone models, using a conventional light-cured or light-activated, acrylic-based resin laboratory block-out gel, those tooth areas to be whitened (often excluding all molar teeth), and (4) vacuum forming a 5-inch by 5-inch sheet of 0.040-inch to 0.080-inch thickness clear plastic resin mouth guard material over each blocked-out and trimmed dental stone model, cooling, removing from model, and suitably trimming above the gingival crest. The whitening mouth guard is then ready for delivery to the patient in the patient home-use whitening kit. As indicated above, home-use of the kit mouth guard and kit-included whitening agent (e.g., carbamide peroxide) typically requires 1 to 8-hour bleaching treatments repeated daily over a period that generally is in the range of 2 to 6 weeks depending upon the degree or severity of dentition staining.
I have discovered a novel in-office dental procedure that, when utilized as a replacement for the above-described conventional in-office procedures, obtains equally satisfactory whitening results, realizes a significant reduction of required dentist and patient in-office times, and also effects a substantial reduction in the costs of patient teeth whitening treatments.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from consideration of the detailed descriptions, drawings, claims, and abstract which follow.
A preferred embodiment of the method aspect of the present invention involves the sequential steps of: (1) applying a dental impression adhesive to the surface of the principal cavity of a conventional alginate dental impression tray; (2) applying dental wax sheet overlays to the surfaces of the patient""s teeth that are to be whitened; (3) filling the coated principal cavity of the dental impression tray with an unset conventional alginate dental impression material; (4) properly placing the filled dental impression tray in the patient""s mouth and holding same in place a sufficient length of time to set the unset alginate dental impression material and thereby form a patient dentition impression; (5) removing the alginate dental impression tray and included set alginate patient dentition impression with retained wax overlay material from the patient""s mouth; (6) scraping or otherwise removing the retained wax overlay from the alginate patient dentition impression; (7) heating the alginate dental impression tray and included patient alginate dentition impression with radiated microwave energy to a temperature in the range of approximately from 110xc2x0 F. to 130xc2x0 F.; (8) coating the surfaces of the patient dentition impression corresponding to the patient teeth that are to be whitened with a conventional carbamide peroxide tooth bleaching gel; (9) promptly and properly placing the heated alginate dental impression tray and included alginate patient dentition impression with carbamide peroxide coating in the patient""s mouth, (10) holding the same in place until the alginate patient dentition impression temperature has dropped to below approximately 110xc2x0 F.; (11) repeating the sequence of steps (7) through (10); and (12) removing the alginate dental impression tray and included alginate patient dentition impression from the patient""s mouth and thoroughly rinsing the patient""s mouth prior to release of the patient.
In the preferred embodiment of the method aspect of the present invention instances the above step (7) is accomplished using a domestic microwave oven for a very short period of time; and the step (10) which follows will generally require a total holding-in-place time of approximately 6 to 10 minutes to obtain satisfactory tooth whitening results.
The instant invention also involves electrical resistance heating apparatus for dental office use in those instances wherein either the conventional dental impression material is microwave energy xe2x80x9ctransparentxe2x80x9d or wherein microwave oven equipment is not available or desirable. Alternatively, the instant invention involves heated fluid apparatus for dental office use in those instances wherein either the conventional dental impression material is microwave energy xe2x80x9ctransparentxe2x80x9d or wherein microwave oven equipment is not available or desirable.